3 ms·
This idea is great. You could even argue that these scripts actually do something: they allow storing and updating the state of a process. By having these scrip
by victormours 7y ago
This idea is great. You could even argue that these scripts actually do something: they allow storing and updating the state of a process. By having these scripts run in a shell rather than in your head, the current state is stored in a machine, not in an unreliable human brain.
- empath75 7y agoalso they allow you to gradually script stuff as you figure it out.
- rakoo 7y agoThis should be read in conjunction with this other great article about how to gradually automate your process: https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3197520 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3197520
- mturmon 7y agoThis is a great article, providing even more context for why this stepwise automation is smart.
- lioeters 7y agoThat looks to be a big advantage of scripts like this, they allow the gradual automation of processes. I realized that I've written scripts that are "executable checklists", but didn't see it as a design pattern until reading this article. Typically such a script starts out as fully manual (do this, do that next, copy here, paste there..) then I replace steps as actual code, where I can, while some steps remain manual if needed. Great use of such checklist scripts is on-boarding collaborators or new team members in a project. Also, as grandparent comment pointed out, they reduce cognitive load by keeping the state of a process outside the head.
- jonathanpoulter 7y agothis seems like the real magic here. The author states at the start, automating all of the steps of something can be daunting. But this script can incrementally become a do everything script.